Khartis Therapeutics Raises $50M To Advance Oral Immunology Drugs

Khartis Therapeutics has secured $50 million in Series B funding to progress its oral drug development pipeline. Led by Forge Life Science Partners, the investment round also saw participation from Longwood Fund, Alexandria Venture Investments, and existing backers Foresite Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Nextech Invest. This brings Khartis' total capital raised to $95 million since its inception in 2024.

The San Diego-based biotech company focuses on developing oral small molecule medicines for immunological and chronic diseases. Their lead program involves a selective inhibitor of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor, targeting thyroid eye disease, an immune-mediated condition causing severe swelling and inflammation around the eyes.

Khartis aims to create differentiated therapies with improved patient convenience, offering potentially safer alternatives to current treatments. The funding will be used to advance the lead programme towards clinical development and continue creating medicines based on validated immunology pathways.

Founded by Robert Hoffman, Craig Murphy, and Chris LeMasters, the team brings drug discovery expertise from their previous work at XinThera, which was acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2023. Forge Life Science Partners sees Khartis' selective approach as having the potential to improve treatment for thyroid eye disease and expects the company to expand its pipeline beyond the lead programme.